


Careful and Careless

by MindscapeWish



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Cervitaur Bill Cipher, Cervitaur Dipper Pines, Deep Conversations, Deerper, First Meetings, Gen, M/M, Monsters Falls, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship, They are minors, bill's got connection issues, they are both deer people lets go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:20:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26079394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MindscapeWish/pseuds/MindscapeWish
Summary: Dipper gets lost trying to find migrating pixies in a part of the forest that he doesn't know. He stumbles upon Bill who agrees to help him home while it's getting dark for a price.Or:Dipper's got issues with being independent and Bill is afraid of getting close to people. They have a big conversation about it all, plus some pining antics on the side.
Relationships: Bill Cipher/Dipper Pines
Comments: 3
Kudos: 67





	Careful and Careless

Grass mushed beneath Dipper’s hooves as he treaded timidly in one straight direction. His ears were pricked and swiveling in all directions, eyes wide and keeping an eye out for any potential predators. The trees all blended together in one long strip of brush with no discernible differences.

Dipper Pines was hopelessly lost. He had been  _ so _ excited to see a bunch of pixies moving away to another part of the forest that he didn’t pay attention to where he was going and ended up stranded in a part of the woods that he had no knowledge about. 

This was perfect, just  _ freaking _ perfect. First he escapes the house, now he has no guaranteed way back. He could already hear the judgemental laughter.

His best bet was continuing to walk until he stumbled across some creatures who might know where to go, but it felt like he had been walking in circles. There was no promise as to if the potential creatures were friendly either. 

Dipper sighed and hung his head low, pulling to a stop near a tree. His hat drooped over his eyes. “Nice goin’, man,” he mumbled to himself. “Fantastic.” He was going to be in so much trouble with his parents. Dipper shouldn’t even be out here in the first place. He was strictly forbidden from doing anything on his own.

His parents kept him and Mabel in a bubble so much that it was suffocating. They weren’t allowed much freedom outside the house apart from the yard, and even their own bedrooms were questionable. He was  _ fourteen _ , damn it, a month away from fifteen! He wasn’t a child-- or in the very least, he deserved some independence for once.

So Dipper had snuck out. Their parents weren’t home so technically it wasn’t sneaking out as much as leaving, but still. And now he was here, stuck and alone.

Honestly, he was scared. Dipper was not a skittish or easily frightened boy, but he had no idea how to get back home from a part of the woods where he didn’t know the predators. Being a cervitaur came with the prey animal instincts and fears.

Dipper pressed his face into his hands and plopped himself down onto the ground, legs tucked beneath him. He was screwed. Absolutely and monumentally  _ screwed.  _ He took in a deep sigh, ears pinning down and shifting the hat on his head.

They suddenly pricked up when they heard a sound nearby. An… achoo? Sneezing?

Dipper shot up from where he slouched and looked around, ears drawing him to a nearby swath of land clear of trees. He slowly pushed himself up and ‘tiptoed’ to the nearest tree. Who was there? Dipper looked out from behind.

In the grass was a large, stretched out cervitaur on its side having a nap in the sun. His tail and ears flicked away the occasional bug buzzing around him. Dipper recognized his fur patterns to be belonging to the persian fallow side of the cervitaur species, bright yellow spots covering the boy’s rump and spine. Antlers just starting to spiral out into a broader frame sat on either side of his blonde-haired head.

Dipper’s cheeks turned a soft pink.  _ Wow _ , this boy was stunning. He daresay  _ regal. _ The golden hour sunlight hit him just right to highlight the sharp, elegant contours of his face. He was in such a vulnerable position that Dipper felt like he should look away. Sleeping alone away from a herd, let alone out in the open like this, went against all cervitaur instincts. This boy had to be a badass rulebreaker, or better yet, so strong that he was confident in protecting himself.

Dipper darted back behind the tree. Okay, cute boy was the first living being beyond squirrels and birds in this part of the forest. This meant he had to wake him up and  _ talk to him _ of all things. There were many things Dipper could do, but going out of his way to do something like  _ that _ was not one of them. 

What if this boy would get mad at him? Or what if he thought he was really stupid because he went out into a place he didn’t know his way around? Wait, what was Dipper thinking? He would never see this guy again, so he might as well just get it over with.

He nodded to himself, taking a deep breath and gathering all his courage. Dipper could do this! Just go out, get the social anxiety over with, and get home.

When Dipper peeked his way back around the tree, he was met by big golden eyes and a shiteating grin.

“Found myself a peepin’ tom, eh?”

Dipper shrieked and jumped back, legs kicking out frantically. He landed on his hooves but his hind legs collapsed, bringing him tumbling to his butt. His ears pinned flush to his head.

The boy cackled and stepped closer, absentmindedly rubbing his side against the tree to scratch an itch. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Geez, you’re jumpy as shit.”

“What was tha-at for?!” Dipper’s flushed horribly over the voice crack. God, his first impression had gone horribly. First he’s discovered, second he was humiliated over something he couldn’t control. It just added to the accusation and proof of guilt.

The boy seemed amused by the skyrocketing pitch. “For spying on me while I take a nap, that’s what.”

“I wasn’t  _ spying  _ on you.” Dipper leaned forward onto his hands and shifted his weight to pop his hind legs back up. From there his front legs came up and he stood straight.

“Then what do you call staring and quickly ducking behind a tree?” The blonde raised a brow.

“It’s-- uh…” Shit,  _ how _ could Dipper make up for that? “I was surprised?”   
  
“Surprised about what?” He sounded skeptical, crossing his arms over his chest.

“That you were there.” Dipper rubbed his arm and looked away, flushed in embarrassment. “I haven’t seen anyone around this part of the woods yet, so. Yeah.”

“Must be fucking blind.” The boy rolled his eyes and tossed his head, getting stray leaves off his antlers from the tree. “Who are you? I know this place better than anyone and I’ve never seen a twink in a stupid pinetree hat here.”

Dipper gaped at him. “I’m not a stupid twink!”

“I said your  _ hat _ was stupid. Your intelligence on the other hand is on a lower level.” The boy got closer, proving to be half a foot taller than Dipper. His piercing golden eyes looked up and down Dipper’s form. Dipper felt naked under his gaze. “Who are you?”

Dipper huffed, looking away to perhaps hide the raging blush that was spreading across his face. The boy was clearly checking him out and he didn’t know how to properly react to that. “My name is Dipper. Who are you?”

“Dipper, huh?” Whatever the next comment he was about to make was visibly held back and replaced with, “I’m Bill.”

Bill? That… was a much simpler and plainer name than Dipper was expecting. Bill didn’t seem like someone who’d go by such a short title, but that was semi-infatuation getting in the way of Dipper’s thinking.

“Well, Bill, I--”

“Am lost?”

Dipper frowned. “Uh, yeah. I’m… lost. Ugh, what am I doing?” He shoved his face into his hands and shook his head. This was so damn ridiculous.  _ He _ was ridiculous for being so reckless and running off. Now Dipper’s pride and ego was taking a major hit  _ and _ he was embarrassing himself in front of this new person. The world might as well just end him right there and then.

Bill seemed amused by Dipper’s pain and grinned, tilting his head to the side. His teeth appeared slightly different than a normal cervitaur’s, on the sharper side compared to the usual blunt shape for their herbivore diet.

“I don’t know, kid, you tell me. What  _ are _ you doing?” He sounded so damn smug. Dipper wanted to wipe it right off his lips.

“I need help! Okay?” Dipper blurted. “You said you knew your way around here, how do I get back to the northwest end of the woods?”

Bill blinked. “Oh, you want  _ me _ to do something, eh?” He sneered and came so close that he towered over Dipper, making the poor thing feel so vulnerable and weak. “It’ll cost ya’.”

Shit. Dipper didn’t have anything to offer! He had brought his bag, yeah, but that had his journal for documenting, a few pens, a flashlight, and a half empty water bottle. There was nothing of value he could give Bill-- either way, he wasn’t willing to give up his journal and Bill probably wasn’t interested in it anyways.

What did he  _ want _ ?

“W-Well, wh-at--”  _ shit _ , “what do you want? I… I don’t have anything right now, but--” Dipper was humiliating himself even more.

“Wait,” Bill interrupted. He pointed a finger at Dipper’s chest. “You said you were from the northwest side, right?” His eyes squinted and lips pursed in something that just screamed he had an idea.

“Yeah.” Dipper took a hesitant step back. They were maybe a foot away and that was _ way _ too close for comfort. “Why?”

“The side with all those huckleberries?”

“Yeah…?” What was he getting at?

Bill lit up like a lightbulb, his ears shooting straight up in an ‘Aha!’ moment.  _ Oh, that was kind of cute… _ “That’s it! I’ll take you back home as long as you give me a shit ton of those berries. It’s a fair trade, y’know, exertion for energy and that shit.”

Dipper’s brows knit together. “That’s it? You don’t want anything else?” Why would Bill only ask for berries? Huckleberries weren’t rare. Bill could make the trip and gather them himself.

“Do you  _ want _ me to demand more?” Bill smirked. Dipper’s eyes widened.

“No! No, no, that’s…” He shook his head frantically. “That’s a good deal. It’s just… Why huckleberries?”

Bill swiveled his head and ears to figure out their place of direction, then started back the way Dipper came like Dipper had never said anything. Dipper watched him in confusion, but hurried up and caught after him so he wasn’t left behind and lost  _ again _ .

“They grow exclusively there and I happen to like them, thank you very much,” Bill sniffed. Their hoofsteps fell into an opposite rhythm on the rocky, dirt pathway.

Dipper couldn’t argue with that. Huckleberries were very sweet and wonderful to bake into pies too. Mabel always gathered them when they were at their ripest and made all sorts of goodies with them.

A silence fell between them. Dipper shifted uncomfortably as the tension he sensed weighed down on his shoulders. When he periodically snuck a glance at Bill, the blonde appeared so casual as if the awkward quiet wasn’t uncomfortable at all. There was the occasional ripple of his back and head tosses to get rid of bugs, but that was it.

Whatever it was, Dipper would have to deal with it for a long while. He had wandered for a good part of the day, so it would take at least that much amount of time to get back home.

“So, Pinetree,” Bill spoke. “How’d you get yourself lost out here in the first place?”

Dipper wanted to crawl into his hat and hide there forever. “I, uh… Wanted to see the pixies.”

“Yeah,  _ and _ ? Why’d you get lost?” Bill sounded annoyed, like this was more work than Dipper was worth.

“How about we stop talking about my failures, huh? Sound good?” Dipper snapped. This was just drilling into him more and more that he was just… well, a  _ failure. _ No wonder his parents kept him locked up all the time. He couldn’t even keep track of one damn direction.

Bill’s jeering tone wiped into a half-confused, surprised look. He raised his arms in surrender. “Geez, kid, fine. Chill. It was just a simple question.”

“A simple question that I’ve been asking myself this entire time!” Dipper threw his fists down at his sides. “I know I fucked up and I just wanted to go out on my own without someone with me, oh I’m not  _ helpless _ , I know what I’m doing-- but I  _ don’t _ and I’ve been wandering for a long time just to find some stupid pixies that I already missed and my parents are gonna kill me, so--”

Bill grabbed Dipper’s arm and yanked him back, making the boy realize he had been continuing to walk when the blonde had paused.

“I said  _ chill _ .” Bill saw the blank expression of classic deer-in-the-headlights fear in Dipper’s eyes. If Dipper continued going on, he’d work himself into a panicked sprint, and Bill wasn’t dealing with finding him again. “I’ll lay off, just calm down.”

Dipper had gotten lost, so what? It wasn’t a big deal. Bill didn’t understand why he was so panicky about it or why he sounded truly  _ scared _ . Bill’s herd never cared about where he had gone off to during the days, so why did Dipper’s?

Dipper felt his breath catch in his throat. Bill… He was staring directly at him-- might as well be staring directly into his  _ soul _ . Dipper might as well be naked with how vulnerable he felt at that moment. It was enough to snap him right out of the trance he was quickly falling into like an ice shock.

His ears slowly unpinned from against his head and he nodded, pulling his arm out from Bill’s grip. A pang of disappointment resonated within his chest from not having Bill’s touch anymore, but it was the least of Dipper’s worries.

“O-Okay. Yeah, um… Okay.” Dipper’s cheeks blazed with embarrassing heat and he looked away. “Can we just get going?”

Bill stared for a few more seconds, then scoffed and turned away. “Yeah, fine, kid.” Whatever. Once this was over, he’d never have to see that dumb (cute) face again.

They set back off into the trees. The air between them was easier to deal with now that their worst was out of the way. Both of them could sense they each had questions but never actually opened their mouths to ask them.

The bright colors that used to paint the landscape gradually dulled as time went on and the sun made its way back towards the horizon. Rich browns became flat and oranges became yellow, the rocks beneath their feet mere shadows blending into the ground.  _ Huh _ . It was later than Dipper thought.

Finally Dipper spoke. “Don’t you have a herd to get back to? Am I keeping you?” Bill was all alone in that meadow without anyone, which told the brunette that he was used to being on his own, but he was still curious. Did he truly have no one to go back home to?

“Nope!” Bill’s cackling laugh echoed back down at them against the tree canopy. “Ditched those fucks a long time ago.”

Dipper tensed and frowned. Bill was crass and careless about something that was highly important to prey animals, so what gives? “Why?” 

He couldn’t imagine being away from his herd in the way Bill was. There was safety in numbers, but something told Dipper that Bill didn’t care about any of that.

Bill looked down towards Dipper, pride just oozing off his stance. “Because they were suffocating.”

“Suffocating?” In the back of Dipper’s mind, he recognized the feeling all too well.

“Yup.” Bill pulled a face to match his mocking tone. “‘Oh, Bill, you can’t butt your antlers on the tree! Think of the birds!’ and ‘Oh, Bill, stay with your brother even though he doesn’t want to be here’ and ‘Oh, Bill, you can’t like b--’” He paused abruptly like he had nearly revealed personal information.

Dipper watched Bill swallow nervously, an emotion totally alien and uncharacteristic to someone like him. He had a strong hunch of what he would have said, but simply kept quiet. It was obviously a sensitive topic to Bill and he didn’t want to push him.

_ You can’t like boys? _

“So how do you protect yourself?” Dipper questioned instead. “There’re reasons why you never see a lone cervitaur…”

Bill grinned sharply and tilted his head back just enough to see the birds perching in the trees above them. “By having gratuitous amounts of ‘I don’t give a shit’, ‘I am the shit’, and not nearly enough ‘I am shit.’” Something in his eyes twinkled, causing Dipper’s heart to skip a beat. “Seriously, kid, it’s great being on your own. No one to bother you or wake you up, nag at you about ‘morals’ and ‘routines’ and ‘responsibilities.’”

Dipper’s mouth became a soft ‘o’ shape. He… He hadn’t thought of that before. Being alone only meant danger, but the way Bill put it sounded like a whole new world. One that he wanted. “Really?” he asked hopefully.

“Yeah,  _ really. _ ” Bill spun around so he was walking backwards while facing Dipper, arms behind his head to catch the breeze on his sides. The sun lit up his blonde hair into something fiery. “It’s great! I can do whatever I want when I want without anyone breathing down the back of my neck.”

God, that sounded so tempting. Dipper could only imagine what it’d be like to be free on his own-- wild, independent, chaotic. Actually… he  _ yearned _ for it. It sounded like the perfect existence. “But what if a predator finds you?”

“Then I fight.” They passed by a clump of foliage that cast shadows onto Bill’s features. The shadows combined with the fire in Bill’s eyes made his confident grin turn menacing. “And I  _ win. _ ”

Dipper shivered and swallowed the lump in his throat. (Was that hot or was it frightening? God, he didn’t know.) “I guarantee there’s monsters much bigger than you are,” he laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

Bill shrugged. “Yeah, so? It’s not hard to avoid them. Sleep in areas they don’t go, play dead, out-wit them in a fight, whatever.” He acted so nonchalant that Dipper found it astounding. “I’ve been out here for so long that I barely remember when I wasn’t.”

“I mean…” Dipper’s brows furrowed as he thought Bill’s so-called plan through. “Have you actually  _ been _ in a fight with one?”

“Oh, yeah! Plenty of times!” Bill waved a hand dismissively. “But at one point you figure out that no one knows what the fuck they’re doing and act accordingly. Read: take the upper hand and force them into submission.”

“Force them into…? And how exactly do you do that?” He crossed his arms and raised his brows defiantly. “Stand there and look pretty until you get your move?”

“Nope, but glad to think I’m pretty, kid.” Bill shot him a wink, a wide smug smirk on his face. Dipper’s gawking had him cackling. “It sure worked with you, though. Maybe I should give it a try!”

Dipper opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to force words out. Fuck, how was he supposed to reply to that? Make a fool of himself or offend the other? “I--It did  _ not _ , but that’s besides the point.”

“Oh, yeah it did.” Bill pointed at him. “I was napping all pretty in the grass-- y’know, sunlight making me sparkle ‘n shit-- and you just ate it right up. Then I caught you.”

“I didn’t think you were  _ pretty _ , I just hadn’t seen anyone here up until then!” Dipper insisted. Arguing with Bill was fighting an uphill battle and he could quickly feel himself slipping. Bill was completely right and he had no room to argue.

“Okay, whatever,” Dipper sniffed. “I’m dropping this.”

“Because you know I’m riiiiight~”

“Not because you’re right, but because I’m tired of arguing.” The situation reminded him almost of him and Mabel having one of their rows again. “New topic. What about friends? Do you have any?”

(Does he have a partner?)

“Nope. Y’know what I said about herds.” Bill turned back around so he was side by side with Dipper.

“But friends don’t have to be in the same herd,” Dipper pointed out, “or in herds at all. Mabel made friends with a fish in a pond once. So don’t you have any companionship?”

_ Don’t tell him about the stick figure henchmaniacs hidden in your hidey hole. _ Bill licked his lips and nodded just slightly to himself to the reminder. “Nope,” he replied instead. “Collateral damage and all.”

Dipper frowned and reached behind him to adjust the strap of his back on his shoulder. “Collateral damage?” Way to be dramatic.

“Yup.” Bill made a face to a few annoying bugs and stomped a hind leg at a few. “I’m not wasting my time forming friendships that I have to do regular maintenance to. Or keep them out of my trouble.”

That was an awfully pessimistic outlook on life. Dipper could only assume how he felt about romantic partners, or how he felt about  _ living _ , and they were not good predictions.

“How do you deal with the loneliness then?” Dipper asked. Bill told him he had no herd and no friends, which meant he was all alone. Someone like him would shun all forms of contact or acquaintances within the forest that reached out for connection, so he quite literally cut himself off from everyone else.

“Pssht. I don’t get lonely. That’s for weaklings.” Something in Bill’s response made Dipper think the opposite though. It was how his intonation wavered, the nonchalant brushing off that almost seemed panicked, how  _ fake _ he seemed.

Dipper didn’t like fake.

He pressed his lips into a thin line and looked ahead at the pathway. The individual hoof prints from Dipper’s journey were more difficult to see now with the shadows and falling sun. That summer night was the type that left sleep thick on his tongue, an odd type of carelessness, and a chill from cooling sunburns.

“I’m surprised that you helped me, then,” he replied softly.

Bill blinked and looked over at him in confusion. The ear closest to Dipper swiveled his way. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve cut yourself off from any type of connection,” Dipper said bluntly. “I don’t know why, but it seems more in character to leave me to be lost so you don’t have to deal with getting out of your comfort zone.”

Bill instantly tensed.  _ What was he, a fucking a psychoanalyst or something? _ He licked his lips and flexed his fingers at his sides.

“It sounds to me,” Bill replied, “that you enjoy looking into things way too much to be healthy. Lay off my personal life.”

Dipper was right, though. He found it easier just to deal with himself than, how one would say, submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known. If no one knew anything about him, then they had nothing to use against him.

Bill had agreed to lead Dipper back home because he didn’t have anything better to do and the dude was gonna annoy him if he didn’t. When he looked back at his decision, though, he realized it was in a lapse of weak judgement.

It was because Dipper was cute! Damn that fucking boy! Bill gave into something he could have easily ignored all because Dipper was cute with those big brown eyes and freckles on his nose.

“Geez. Fine, kid, chill, it was a simple sentence,” Dipper mocked in a high voice. He completely butchered his impression of Bill from earlier, but he knew he got the job done when Bill glared at him with pinned back ears.

“Not funny.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be funny. It was  _ satirical _ .”

“Satirical, funny, same difference.” Bill pushed Dipper off the side of the main pathway. Dipper narrowly avoided the blackbush vines.

“Hey!” Dipper shouted.

“Hay’s for horses. As far as I know, you’re a deer,” Bill replied, a shiteating grin on his lips.

Dipper could practically  _ feel _ steam shooting from his ears. His cheeks turned red and puffed into a little pout. “God, you’re infuriating!”

“Thanks,” Bill drawled right off the bat, “it’s my charm.” He heard Dipper huff angrily and kick a rock or four. It just made the blonde laugh even more. “Such a child. How old are you anyways?”

“I’m 15 next month,” Dipper muttered. His ears pricked up when Bill made a sound of recognition.

“I’m 16. Not too far off,” Bill hummed.

Dipper’s jaw dropped. “ _ Only _ 16?! And getting away from your herd so young?”

Bill shrugged. “Yeah, man, it’s not that hard. Y’gotta get over it, kid, it’s getting old. Find something else to fixate on.”

The next few minutes were full of Dipper’s irritated little mumblings and Bill doing his best not to laugh at them. There was something so damn fun about annoying this guy. Watching Dipper react and get irritated was probably the highlight of his  ~~ month ~~ day.

“Alright then, you can continue your bitching, but I wanna know what’s in that stupid backpack of yours.” Bill trailed behind just enough to tug at it. The backpack whopped off of Dipper’s shoulders and caught on his elbows.

“Hey!” Dipper turned abruptly and yanked Bill’s hands away. “It’s nothing you’d be interested in.”

“Sure I would, Pinetree.”

Dipper frowned and shrugged the backpack back up onto his shoulders. Everyone who had noticed and asked ultimately told him to shut up because they weren’t interested in the journals or his rambling. The brunette was very hesitant to tell the other.

“No, you wouldn’t,” he mumbled in reply.

“Look at you, thinking for me.” Bill rolled his eyes, ducking low so his antlers didn’t get caught in a tree. “Is that all you ever do? Overthink?”

“...Maybe,” Dipper admitted sheepishly. “But it hasn’t done me any wrong yet.”

“That you know of,” Bill pointed out. “You probably’ve fucked yourself over so many times already doing that.”

“It’s kept me out of trouble,” Dipper shot back, “and the lack of it’s gotten Mabel in tons of issues.” His childhood was full of good examples of that.   


“Mabel?” Bill shifted the subject, glancing over at Dipper curiously. Something in his heart twinged. Who was she? “Your  _ giiiiirlfriendddd _ ?”

Dipper’s features twisted up in disgust. “Ew, no! That’s gross! She’s my twin sister. I don’t have any partners.”

_ Partners _ ? Bill honed in on that specific term. People who were straight as a ruler most of the time never referred to their significant other as their partner, but rather their girlfriend or boyfriend. So… Maybe Dipper was…?

What was Bill thinking? That was ridiculous. They hadn’t known each other for longer than two hours and he was already getting weak? That was pathetic.

“Twin? I have a twin.” Bill cracked a small smile, recalling the blue flowers that his twin used to string up in his own antlers and bright blue eyes.

Dipper admired the rare smile on Bill’s lips. It looked like they were more alike than they had both previously assumed. “You too? What’s their name?”

“His name is William. He’s still in the herd.” William hadn’t wanted to leave their family because he was afraid of change. Plus he was… Bill was just gonna say it,  _ weak. _ William was easily hurt and Bill wasn’t going to lead him to his doom.

Dipper blinked, his lips pursing. “...William? And... Bill?”

Bill laughed and ran his fingers through his hair. The chillier breeze messed with the wisps and shook the leaves on the trees. “Yeah, my parents weren’t that creative.”

“I almost feel bad,” Dipper joked. The other’s laugh managed to make his heart skip a beat.

“Says the one named Dipper,” Bill snickered. “Did your parents hate you or something?”

“No!” Dipper protested, pouting a bit. “Dipper’s just a nickname. I hate my real one.” He sidestepped a hole in the ground, noticing how much more difficult it was to see. He paused and pulled out the flashlight from his backpack.

Once Dipper had the flashlight on, Bill continued walking and asked, “What’s your real one then?” The grin on his face was almost predatory.

“Like I’d tell you.” Dipper rolled his eyes. “How far away are we?”

Bill turned his head and looked around their location. The southern part of the forest where he was from had trees spread out across the place, but the northwestern part had trees clustered together with tons of brush. Judging by the clumping trees, he answered, “Maybe half an hour till’?”

“Oh.” Dipper almost felt disappointed. He didn’t know why, but he wanted to stay out for longer. Logically he knew that his parents were gonna kill him so he should hurry up, but really, they would be upset either way and BIll was interesting to talk to. Maybe… Maybe he should slow down. Just a little.

Neither of them spoke for a little while after that. Dipper found himself stumbling along because of how often he stopped to stare up through the trees at the stars. His hat kept slipping back so he had to hold it down to look up.

“Look at those…” he whispered softly. There were just  _ so many. _ Dipper could spot the Big Dipper without any problem and the rest of the constellations he memorized followed after. Those bright lights did nothing but regularly fascinate him and dream of other places, of other futures, of other  _ universes. _

Bill looked back at Dipper every so often, but soon found himself fully stopping in his tracks to watch Dipper stare upwards at the sky. The brunette with the stupid hat was so entranced that he could barely walk. What a dope.

What a dope, and yet, Bill found himself laughing. He hadn’t met someone with the interest and wonder in their eyes that Dipper had. Dipper was definitely a once in a lifetime kind of character.

“If you keep stopping, I’m never getting you home and I better get those damn berries after doing all this for you,” Bill announced.

Dipper snapped out of his current trance and trotted back up to Bill’s side. “Sorry. Have you considered that since it’s so dark, you’re not getting any berries tonight?”

“Oh, don’t try to wiggle your way out of the deal!” Bill crowed. He stuck his fingers into Dipper’s side, making the boy squeal and flail his arms. “I’m getting those huckleberries if I have to stick around this side of the woods until the morning.”

Dipper put distance between them, arms plastered to his sides so he wouldn’t be tickled again. “Alright, suit yourself. I might even give you a blanket.”

“A blanket?” Bill gasped dramatically, ears flapping back and forth. “How scandalous. Are you sure you aren’t falling hard for me?”

Something about that slapped Dipper straight in the face and he ended up blushing hard enough that his cheeks burned. He yanked his hat down over his eyes. “N-No! Don’t say things like that, jesus…”

Dipper knew it highly sounded like he was crushing, but really, just the idea of romance as a whole made him embarrassed. He had no experience and barely any friends, plus he was  _ not _ up to terms with his attractions.

Bill laughed hard, which just made Dipper even more embarrassed. “Alright, alright, fine. We’ll talk about something else. What’s someone as pathetic as you into?”

Dipper peeked up from beneath the blue brim of his cap. Thank god, a subject change. “Like, hobbies?”

“Mhmmm.”

Dipper thought for a few moments. What  _ did _ he do? Everything left his mind like a blank slate the instant he was asked about them.

“Well… I like the stars. I do a lot of studying on them,” he supplied. “I also do exploring when I can. I write everything in my journal!”

Bill peered over. “Journal, you say?”

The way Dipper’s eyes positively lit up as bright as the sun made Bill smile too. He couldn’t help that Dipper’s beam was infectious. Maybe having him around wasn’t so bad.

“Yeah!” Dipper exclaimed. The boy shoved the flashlight between his teeth so he could grab the journal out of his backpack. Once he grabbed hold of it, he took the flashlight back into a hand. “I document all the creatures I meet and see! My great uncle Ford-- Grunkle Ford-- gave me the journal and he does a lot of it too!”

Dipper rambled like there was no tomorrow, but Bill couldn’t find it in him to make him shut up. It was endearing, almost, and kind of cute how into his interest Dipper was. Bill could listen to him talk the whole night long.

In fact, as Dipper babbled the rest of the way, he led them both down the familiar route to his home once they hit territory he recognized. He hadn’t realized they were on the way home until his house came into sight.

Dipper paused and blinked, confused. “Wait. Has it really been that long?”

“Yup,” Bill hummed. “You’re very passionate, Pinetree.” Sticks and branches crunched beneath his hooves as he led Dipper up to where he assumed the door was. The house was a little cabin with a sliding glass door at the front, so he went towards that. It was too dark to see anything else.

“I… probably annoyed you, sorry,” Dipper mumbled. Mabel never really listened because she got bored and his parents didn’t like listening to the info-dumps either. So, Dipper didn’t blame Bill for wanting to get rid of him after that.

“It wasn’t annoying.” Bill turned around to face Dipper, arms crossed and weight shifted onto one side. “Quite nice to listen to, actually. Anyways, you’re home now. I’m sleeping on your porch.”

Dipper laughed at how random the last bit sounded. He looked up at Bill, almost feeling like this was the awkward goodnight of a first date. “Yeah, um, okay. Yeah, I’ll be up early in the morning to pick berries. How does that sound?”

“Sounds great, Pinetree. I’ll be riiiight--” Bill climbed up the wooden stairs, his hooves clacking against them, and plopped his ass right down, “here.”

Dipper bit his lip and grinned, climbing up next to him to get to the door. “Alright. Well, goodnight, Bill. I’ll find you a blanket if I can.”

Bill tucked his front legs in and pressed himself up against the side of the house beneath the overhang of the roof. “Yup. Don’t let the bugs bite, kid.”

Dipper held back a giggle and pulled the door open. Yeah, his parents would be pissed, but… He didn’t regret one bit of this. Not anymore.

He was halfway inside when Dipper paused. “Hey, Bill?”

Bill perked up and turned to look at him. “Hm?”

Dipper blushed and pinned his ears down, almost like he was embarrassed to say the next words. They nearly felt like a confession. “I know you’re a loner and all, but… Maybe have me as a friend?”

Bill stared at him, the gears turning in his head. Dipper could see them running at full speed and could only hope of getting a good answer. He was surprised when he was right for once.

Bill genuinely smiled, almost too soft to bear. “I’d like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was a request from tumblr! It was a really fun one shot to do. I've found that this is my best work of fluid, back and forth, and realistic dialogue ever, so I'm pretty proud of it. A good 3/4 of this was churned out two late nights in a row where I talked to myself through the characters. To put it simply, I ~ projected ~ and vibed so hard that it actually worked.
> 
> This has also been the most SFW, vanilla thing I've ever written in a good few months. Whoops?
> 
> Anyways, I apologize to whoever sent the request in for it being so late, however it's done!
> 
> If you're interested in this, want to see something specific from me (a request), want to support me, or just wanna say hey, make sure to check out my tumblr (mindscapewish-writes)!
> 
> Shout out to the one who beta-ed this for me, silveroddity! We're collaborating on a big thing real soon, so make sure to stay tuned!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments.


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